Author: Pert Boioioing

“Heavy” in quotes since I’m still using relatively light weights on the barbell back squat.

Continue reading “Day three of PPL – Leg “Heavy””

Day two of my new PPL split has been completed. Pull Light. The exercises were the following:

Continue reading “Day two of PPL – Pull Light”

Today was day one of my new PPL split. I’ll see how things go but the intent is for a 6-day PPLPPL with rest on day 7, so Push, Pull, Legs, Push, Pull, Legs, Rest.

Continue reading “Day one of PPL – Push Heavy”

CHN went ok-ish today, only did 3 sets of 5 though and felt kinda tapped after that. Planned to do more sets later in a grease-the-groove fashion.

BSQ went very well today, really felt it in the best way with virtually zero pain.

BP went very well today, really felt it in the best way with zero pain. Also good, heavy lifts.

DL went ok-ish today. Gotta remember the cue to sit back a bit and the lift felt better, but I didn’t do as much weight as Monday and couldn’t get the bar off the ground on set 4 due to a sudden strange feeling in the pelvic girdle, so decided to call it for the day. Feeling some general discomfort in the lower-left ab region now.

It seems now that the weights are getting heavier it’s truly the time to start splitting things up, maybe an alternating abbreviated A and B full-body workout instead of everything every day. Or some PPL variant.

Only slept for about 6 hours last night and woke up with some general jankiness in my left hip. Not a point pain like the tendon, etc. pains I’ve had recently, more generalized dull ache front to back. Went for a walk and it’s gotten a bit better.

Started the Wednesday workout. Started again with three sets of Chinups, felt heavier than Monday. Did two fewer reps.

Then BSQ, put the barbell a bit lower and remembered the cue to sit back a bit like sitting down on one of those folding chairs that come with portable card tables. Not sure why that specific type of chair in particular, but it just seems *right*. Really great sets, very minimal tendon pain/discomfort and felt good muscle activation in my quads. Despite the low weight this was probably my best-feeling session of barbell Back Squats yet.

BP was next, first set bailed after four reps due to gravity. Backed off the weight by 5 lbs, did two more sets of 5 and, due to lack of energy, decided to abbreviate the rest of the workout by only doing three sets each for the BOR and OHP. Started setting up for BOR and all the energy just drained out of me, like I forgot to put the plug back in after the Bench Press. Decided to bail on the rest of the workout today.

Poor sleep makes for poor recovery.

I had been having a bit of pain in the hip crease region, more ab-side recently but that seems to have mostly abated. Joints and tendons are generally feeling better today.

Did my MON_WKOT. Started with three sets of Chinups, which I have been neglecting lately. Didn’t seem to have much of a negative effect on the rest of the lifts until the BOR which felt heavier and more difficult but that’s a compromise I’m willing to make for now.

BSQ felt the best it has in the adductor tendon, etc. region though only with 95 lbs. Squats looked and felt stable and there was very little irritation in the normal suspects, often none at all. So it seems that working on these lighter weight squats will be important for a while and give everything stability wise a chance to catch up.

Everything else went great. BP was the highest weight ever, as were the DLs. BOR was difficult due to some pre-fatigue from the Chins earlier. Took a long break for some food then finished the finisher sets.

One thing of potential worry, felt a little pop or twang in the right pubic symphysis area on one of the ab-wheel (er, skateboard actually) rollouts. Hopefully not something that is gonna hurt later. I had taken a break from the ab exercises for the past few days due to the hip-crease region pain mentioned above, thinking it could be one or more of the ab-tendons acting up, or a minor tear or something. Gonna play it safe and probably back off a bit to see how things go.

Groin. Gorn.

Workouts have been going pretty well. The SI pain has been reduced recently. However, there is a nagging pain in the groin area near the hip crease, which seems to affect both sides, right and left, but one side or the other at a time. Felt throbbing blood vessels after the deadlifts there today which was rather disconcerting. This seemed to feel different than the “adductor tendon” pain I’ve been having recently, more generalized and in a slightly different location but nonetheless bothersome.

Squats went well enough today despite the groin pain. The idea to stop and push through the painful area slowly seems to help. Also the new cue to relax the knees and drop my body a slight bit before the squat to engage the quads more really seems to be helping feel it in the quads. Definitely felt a great quad workout today, much better than ever despite using less weight. Stability is key which is what I’m going to focus on for now. Also beginning to suspect that the pain is largely related to instability anyway so this will be a good opportunity to back off the weight again and test that theory.

Bench Press went great today. Heaviest sets in my life, and done with good form. With a couple of exceptions, my shoulders felt great and pecs felt engaged. There were a couple of bad reps which tweaked the right shoulder slightly but I think I have improved form substantially over the past couple of months.

As mentioned, the Deadlift wasn’t feeling right in the groin area, right around the hip crease. There was some pain towards the lockout point and I could really feel my pulse on both sides in the groin when sitting down after the set. Never noticed that before, maybe a bit worried about it since it’s a new phenomenon.

Took a break here and had a banana with some OJ with a dash of protein powder. Feeling a might bit peckish.

Overhead Press went well, heaviest weight there too. Good form except for a couple of wobbly lockouts. Pretty much achieved failure at the end so good session all around.

The Bent Over Rows went pretty well, heavy weight and difficult sets though ostensibly with good form. Also felt the groin pain when racking the barbell after the set.

Didn’t do the finisher exercises today due to the groin pain. Hopefully the pain rectifies itself over the next couple of days and never comes back. The end.

Did WED_WKOT, felt good overall, continuing on my deload week. Today I had three revelations:

1. Have some OJ and a banana a bit before starting the workout.
2. 3×7 with hard weights straight across the board will probably be better for my next 4-week cycle. See how that goes. Bodyweight exercises can be higher reps.
3. Noticed BSQ would only start to invoke adductor tendon discomfort at a specific point in the concentric part of the lift, about halfway up, thighs about 45 degrees. Pausing here and proceeding to lockout with caution, focusing on quad activation felt A LOT better. Definitely have to remember this to see if it was a fluke or just something I do for now.

Bonus revelation: Probably don’t need to BSQ all the way to A2G, hip crease below knee is probably sufficient and should hopefully put less strain on the SI joints in general so I’m going to try this for the next 4-week cycle as well.